Shoemania fever strikes art community

It’s not often you can get fine art painters and printmakers to put down their paintbrushes and pick up an old shoe and glue gun. But that’s what happened when shoemania fever struck the art community. There is no known cure and once infected, the artist is compelled to create at a feverish pitch until the virus has run its course and a final masterpiece comes into being.

The start of the fever has been pinpointed to an assemblage artist, Richard Fruend along with Brandon Gallery, who put out the call for artists to enter the September ‘Best Foot Forward’ art show. Shoemania spread like wildfire to artists throughout the communities of Fallbrook, Temecula, Lake Elsinore and beyond.

On Sept. 8, all of the recovered artists gathered at Brandon Gallery, to talk about their process and honor each other for having lived through the transforming ordeal. Awards were given and shoemania fever has subsided. They say it isn’t gone, but simply dormant. It could come back even more fervently next year!

Laura Ryan of Temecula won Best of Show for her “Spectator Redux” (eyepoppers.blogspot.com) and Robin Golden, of Studio 395 Lake Elsinore, won first place for “The Shoe Must Go On,” which says it all about how she worked her way through the fever.

The ‘Best Foot Forward’ art show is on display now through Sept. 30 at Brandon Gallery, 105 N. Main Ave. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

‘Best Foot Forward’ art show participants

Best of Show – Laura Ryan – “Spectator Redux”

First Place – Robin Golden – “The Shoe Must Go On”

Second Place – Jim Behrman – “I Owe, I Owe, It’s Off to Work I Go”

Third Place Kathleen Morgan – “Foot Soldiers”

Brandon Gallery Director’s Award –

Robert Jordan – “A Garden Surprise”

Gabriele Bitter

Sharon Dean

Dacy Denton

Dara Denton

Jo-Lind Eckstein

Jerry Kalman

Mike Miller

Noreen Ring

Lydia Rossi

Suzie Rupnow

Grace Sandlin

Sheri Schwarzweller

Carrie Ventola

Carol Zaleski

R. Mike Nichols